As well known, a common hanger is made up of an arched body, centrally provided with a projecting crook-shaped hook. The hook is constituted by a wire-like body, generally made of steel, that engages in a stable manner, with the lower part thereof, in the arched body, usually made of plastic material.
Hangers are usually used several times, hence once they are free of the hanged garment, they are kept away, until next use. The drawback that is observed during the step of storing hangers in stores lies in the overall dimensions of the single hanger, defined by the width-wise dimension of the arched body and from the extension of the projection of the hook from the top part of the arched body. Furthermore the projection of the hook from the arched body constitutes a considerable overall dimension even when the hanger is packaged in a container with the garment hanged.
Practically, the overall dimension of the hanger, especially depending on the extension of the hook, thus becomes a major and crucial parameter in each step of utilisation of the hanger itself: from the manufacturer of the hangers, where there is required the maximum reduction possible of the dimensions of the packagings used for the shipment of the hangers to the garment makers, to the sales facility, when the hanger should be handled with the garment hanged, in particular, through the delivery sales channels, where the overall dimensions of the container of the folded hanged garment provided with hanger determine the dimension of the container to be shipped, which have an impact on the costs of transport, up to the so-called “recycling” operation, when the hanger, from a sales point where it is no longer used, is shipped again to the tailoring stores for the reutilization thereof.
In the current state of the art there are known hangers which can reduce the overall dimensions thereof providing for that the hook is held on the arched body through a connection which allows the disengagement and a rotation thereof, when required, so as to be moved into the space defined by the arched body itself.
By way of example reference is made to patent document VI2010A000293 in which there is described a hanger with foldable hook, which is characterized in that the base of the hook, at a side thereof, is connected to the arched body through a flexible tab, which allows the aforementioned hook an elastic twisting, in particular a 90° rotation and beyond, from vertical to horizontal and vice versa, i.e. from perpendicular to parallel on the arched body; vice versa on the opposite side said base is provided with an hook which holds, during the operating step, the hook on the arched body so that, when the hook is raised, the hanger takes up the configuration typical of the normal function thereof, having the same resistance of a common hanger with fixed hook.
Disadvantageously, the aforementioned hanger, as well as other hangers which provide for the movement of the hook to reduce the overall dimension thereof, (by way of example reference shall be made to those described in patent documents U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,452, U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,343, U.S. Pat. No. 2,428,820, U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,670 and GB 2355922) are obtained through a structural technique which is rather complex and which requires considerably modifying the design both of the arched body and the lower end of the hook, with considerable moulding costs.
In particular, in the hangers where the hook is held on the arched body through a flexible tab there is required the use of a plastic material with considerable elastic properties, such as polypropylene, which has a higher cost of raw material with respect to a less expensive plastic material, such as polystyrene, which however has a limited degree of elasticity.
In addition, in the structural solutions known up to date, due to the mobility of the connection between the hook and arched body, during use the hanger does not have a sufficiently rigid structure, like the one observed in a common monoblock hanger, which, practically, determines a considerable difficulty of optimally holding the hanged garment, sometimes causing even the aforementioned to fall.
Document FR 2 599 612 A1, which constitutes the most important document of the state of the art, provides a hanger in which the hook and the arched body constitute two separate components, which are mutually held by introducing the base of the hook in a cavity obtained on the central upper part of the aforementioned arched body, which has a particular design of the two opposite parts which determine a rapid operation of hooking/unhooking, which ensures a rigid structure (hook/arched body) during use and allow the hook, remaining constrained to the arched body, to rotate up to 90°, so as to reduce the overall dimension of the hanger, when it is not in use.